A/HRC/22/36 material losses to the Syrian farmers, who were unable to find an alternative market for their crop. The Government called on the Secretary-General to intervene in order to ensure that Israel respected its agreement with ICRC and the non-recurrence of such unjustified action. The Government repeated its condemnation of the fact that, in December 2010, Israel had confiscated water sources from the occupied Syrian Golan and allocated water exclusively to Israeli settlers, resulting in financial losses amounting to more than $20 million for Syrians in the Golan, whose livelihood depends on farming and fishing, and would result in an economic and environmental catastrophe in the area. The Government believes that this was a deliberate violation of the human rights of Syrians and constituted a violation of the seventh preambular paragraph of Security Council resolution 465 (1980), in which the Council took into account the need for measures to ensure the protection of important natural resources of the territories under occupation, including water. According to the Government, it also violated paragraph 5 of the same resolution, in which the Council determined that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of Arab territories occupied since 1967 were null and void and with no legal validity. Referring to international law and the United Nations, the Government called on the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council and the international community to prevent Israel from continuing its violations, including looting natural resources from the occupied Golan and other Arab territories. 11. In its note verbale, the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic reaffirmed its rejection of the decision made by the Knesset on 22 October 2010 to mandate a referendum on any agreement that would lead to the withdrawal of Israel from the occupied Golan and East Jerusalem, and requiring the support of more than 80 per cent of Israelis for any such withdrawal. It noted that the motion was a violation of and reflected contempt for international law, which stipulates that territory may not be acquired by force, and was also incompatible with Security Council resolution 497 (1981). 12. In its note verbale, the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic reaffirmed the request it had made to the Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the President of the Human Rights Council and the President of ICRC to put pressure on Israel to ensure that Syrian prisoners detained in its jails were kept in humane conditions. It also rejected the trials of Syrians by Israel on 14 July 2010: Majed Shaer, who was sentenced to five and a half years in prison, and his son Fidaa, who was sentenced to three years of imprisonment for establishing contact with their motherland. The Government expressed concern at the increasing number of cases of abduction of Syrian farmers and shepherds by Israel, including children, from the Syrian side of the ceasefire line, and condemned and rejected all these practices. The Government referred to other violations that were reported to the Human Rights Council at its twelfth and thirteenth sessions, as seen in the reports of the Secretary-General (A/HRC/13/52 and A/HRC/16/25). 13. The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic reaffirmed the need to pressure Israel to respect paragraph 4 of Human Rights Council resolution 19/14, in which the Council called upon Israel to allow the Syrian population of the occupied Syrian Golan to visit their families and relatives in their motherland through the Quneitra crossing, and to rescind its decision barring these visits. The Government referred to the decision of Israel to deny the passage of a Syrian delegation of religious leaders from the occupied Syrian Golan to other parts of the Syrian Arab Republic to attend the funeral of Ahmed Alhijry. 1 The Government 1 4 The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic did not provide any further details on the deceased in its note verbale.